Canadian Lightning Strike Survivor Wins Lotto

Peter McCathie quite literally defied the odds.

The Canadian man, who was previously struck by lightning when he was 14, collected his Atlantic Lottery winnings on Monday. The odds of being struck by lightning in Canada are less than one in a million. The odds of winning the Atlantic Lotto are one in 13,983,816. In an incredible turn of events, McCathie’s daughter was also struck by lightning a few years ago while working as a wilderness guide in Manitoba.

The odds that all three of those events would happen to the same person are, as a mathematics professor at the University of Moncton told CTV News, approximately 1 in 2.6 trillion.

McCathie’s winnings, $1 million, are shared with his co-worker Diana Miller. The two have been buying lottery tickets together for about a year, but McCathie never expected to win.

“I honestly expected to get hit by lightning again first,” he told CTV News.

McCathie owns the store the ticket was bought in, so he is raking in an additional $10,000 from the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. He’ll be spending his winnings on a second honeymoon with his wife of 30 years.

[CTV News]